LATHE OF 1 6 71 was remarkably advanced for its time. The how bined action of foot and bow.

ot and bow. A large flywheel kept the p ,ece turn­

drive was powered by an apprentice who placed his foot in a ing smoothly. The lathe, described by Cherubin d'Odeans, used
stirrup (m) and pumped. The crankshaft was turned by the com· pulleys of various sizes to provide various speeds of revolution.

1 32

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

 The Origins of the Lathe

The importance of the iron-cutting lathe to the Industrial

Re()olution is rarely appreciated. A number of ingenious

lathe lnechanisnLs can be traced back to the Middle Ages

by Hobert S. Woodbury

achine tools lie at the heart of being rotated between two fixed mem­ work alone, using one hand to pull the

M industrial production, and the

acknowledged queen of
chine tools is the lathe. Yet because the
ma­
bers, which would now be called the
headstock and tailstock. (Although the
workpiece appears to be held vertically,
bow and the other to hold the tool. The
drawback of both methods was that the
workpiece rotated first in one direction
lathe originated in antiquity and has it was an Egyptian pictorial convention and then in the other, requiring that
no single inventor it receives short shrift to rotate horizontal objects into the ver­ tool pressure be co-ordinated with the
in most histories, which often describe tical plane for clarity.) The workpiece power stroke of the cord or bow.
the Industrial Revolution as if it had is being turned by a cord or thong
been evoked solely by the steam engine, wrapped around it, which an assistant he next major advance, which did
the power loom and the cotton gin. With­ is pulling back and forth. The skilled T not come until the Middle Ages, was
out major developments in the lathe artisan is holding a cutting tool against the introduction of the spring-pole-and­
between 1750 and 1830 the Industrial the workpiece. treadle drive[see illustration at top left
Revolution could not have taken place. Somewhat later pictures show that on page 136]. In this method a flexible
Nor were these developments anony­ the simple hand-held cord was often re­ pole was mounted above the lathe and
mous. Until 1750 the lathe was used placed by a cord stretched in a bow. The a cord ran from the pole, around the
primarily for working in wood and pew­ bow cord made a loop around the work­ lathe spindle and to a foot treadle. Some­
ter and for turning the brass components piece or around a spindle attached to times a heavy bow replaced the flexible
of clocks and instruments. By 1830 it the workpiece. The work was rotated by pole. In either case the workpiece ro­
had been transformed into a powerful pulling the bow back and forth. The tated back and forth as the workman
factory tool capable of shaping iron and great advantage of the bow over the stepped on the treadle and released it.
steel machine parts in industrial sizes simple cord was that it allowed a man to The treadle drive, which was in use by
and quantities. The man who stood at
the center of this transformation was
Henry Maudslay, an Englishman whose
work climaxed a long history of develop­
ment going back many centuries.
From various artifacts found in ar­
chaeological sites it can be inferred
that the lathe was invented nearly 3,000
years ago. The history of invention
strongly suggests that such an inspiration
rarely depends on a solitary genius, and
the idea of the lathe probably arose in­
dependently in several minds. By the
fifth century B.C. the lathe was known to
the Etruscans in Italy, to the Celts in
England and to the inhabitants of the
Crimean Peninsula. Three hundred years
later turned products of wood and other
material were to be found throughout
the ancient world. ------_...._---------
.. ....
."- .
The earliest known picture of a lathe
is one carved in low relief on the wall of
an Egyptian grave of the third century EARLIEST PICTURE OF A LATHE is one on the wall of an Egyptian grave of the third
B.C. [see illustmtion at right]. It shows century B.C., shown here in a line drawing. The man at left is holding the cutting tool. The
the article to be shaped-the workpiece- man at the right is making the workpiece rotate back and forth by pulling on a cord or thong.

·133

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

A.D. 1400, gave the workman use of both
hands for holding the cutting tool.
The bothersome back-and-forth rota­
tion of the spindle became a serious
problem when the lathe was used to
turn heavy wooden pieces or nonferrous
metals. The workman had all he could
do to guide his cutting tool accurately
without trying to generate the required
foot power and co-ordinate the tool
position at the same time. This problem
was solved by adopting a continuous
pulley drive, which again called for the
help of an apprentice [see illustration at
top right all page 136]. Old woodcuts
and drawings show that many lathes
were turned by hand in this way until
1800 and even later.
In the Mittelalterlichen Hausbuch of
about 1480 there is a most important
drawing. It shows a lathe in which for

--

.. ---

I N DE X --7'=----,
PLATE

GEAR BOX
(48 SPEEDS)
FROM SPINDLE

COMPOUND GEARS
/
LEAD SCREW AND DRIVE SHAFT

ANATOMY OF THE LATHE shows the location of the principal between the headstock and tailstock. The compound rest, a devel·
parts and mechanisms discussed in the text. The workpiece is held opment of the simple slide rest, holds the cutting tool and, in mod·

134

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

 the first time control of the cutting ern cross-feed devices. :\10reover, the into the workpiece. Thus all the ele­
tool was taken from the skilled hands toolholder was held fixed in the lateral ments of a screw-cutting lathe, includ­
of the turner and put into a mechanical direction, while the workpiece was ing a fully developed cross slide, had
device today called a slide rest [see bot­ moved past it by means of what is now appeared by the end of the 15th century.
tom illustration on next page J. The cut­ known as a lead screw, turned by a In the late 16th century Leonardo da
ting tool was fed into the work by means crank. This combination of motions Vinci turned his attention to the lathe
of a screw mechanism much like mod- made it possible to cut screw threads and sketched a number of mechanisms

{j.
TOOL HOLDER tilb... COMPOUND REST TOP BLOCK
L
TOOL � ;;: Ri
POST

_ .' ... .""-.

SWIVE L --fF:::::::;::��

TO HAND WHEEL FOR M.ANUAL LONGITUDINAL DRIVE

MANUAL MICROMETER FEED

TAILSTOCK

CROSS FRICTION DRIVE

REVERSE ' ---':;'--.
RACK.
HALF NUTS
(ENGAGE LEAD SCREW) LEAD SCREW
MANUAL MICROMETER CROSS· FEED DRIVE SHAFT

.SET OVER SCREW (FOR TAPER TURNING)

LONGITUDINAL FRICTION DRIVE
CLAMP BOLTS
HAND WHEEL FOR MANUAL LONGITUDINAL DRIVE. TAILSTOCK RACK ADJUSTMENT

ern lathes, is equipped with means for feeding the tool into the the workpiece from bending under the pressure of the tool. The
workpiece. The steady rest, a development of the back rest, keeps lead screw provides the means for cutting threads in the workpiece.

135

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

POLE LATHE OF 1395 enabled the workman to turn the work· CONTINUOUS· DRIVE LATHE OF 1568 eliminated the back·and­
piece by means of a foot treadle and freed both of his hands for forth rotation of the workpiece, produced by po1e·and.treadle
holding the cutting tool. The workpiece rotated back and forth. lathe, but required the services of a helper to turn a drive wheel.

not seen previously [see top illustration and was mounted between two bear­ In another sketch Leonardo showed a

011 opposite page], but whether or not his ings-the first time this arrangement had screw· cutting machine (not strictlv a

innovations were embodied in the ma­
chines of his day is not known. Leonardo
showed one lathe driven by a treadle
acting on a crankshaft. The crankshaft
was attached directly to the lathe spindle
been seen. A fly\Vheel, supported by an
additional bearing, kept the work turn·
ing smoothly. Finally, to hold \Vork·
pieces of various lengths, Leonardo in·
troduced an adjustable tailstock spindle.
lathe), in which he provided "change
gears" to cut threads of various pitches.
This was a significant advance over the
screw·cutting lathe of 1480.
After Leonardo, lathe designers turned

SCREW·CUTTING LATHE OF 1480 was depicted in the Mittel· (detllil lit ri.ghtl, which today would be called a slide rest. The
alterlichen HlIusbuch. For the first time control of the cutting tool rest was held in a longitudinal guideway. The workpiece was
was taken from the skilled worker and put in a mechanical device moved below, and past, the cutting tool by means of a hand crank.

136

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

their attention increasingly to improv­
ing the controls with which the tool was
brought to bear on the workpiece.
Leonardo's successor as engineer to the
French court, Jacques Besson, made
several important advances. In a screw­
cutting lathe designed about 1550 Bes­
son cleverly co-ordinated the movement
of the workpiece and the cutting tool
[see bottom illustration at right]. In
the 1480 screw-cutting lathe a lead
screw moved the work past the tool;
in Besson's lathe a lead screw moved
the tool past the work. This marked
the first use of a lead screw, held in a

nut, for longitudinal feeding of a lathe

tool, another important element of mod­
ern machines. It was also the first semi­ SKETCHES BY LEONARDO DA VINCI show several remarkable innovations in machine

automatic lathe, that is, a lathe in which design. The lathe at left has a treadle, a crankshaft and a large flywheel. The tailstock
spindle Can he adjusted by a hand crank. The devi('e at right is a s('rew-cutting machine (not
the performance did not depend on the
strictly a lathe), which has a set of change gears for cutting threads of various pitches.
operator's skill but was built into the
machine itself.

etween Besson's time and 1750 there

B was slow but significant progress in
tool control and drive mechanisms. In
1671, about midway in this interval,
Cherubin d'Orieans described a bthe
with an interesting combination of bow­
and-treadle drive and flywheel [see illus­
tration 011 page 132]. The outstanding
feature of the design was the use of sev­
eral pulleys of different sizes mounted on
an overhead shaft to provide different
speeds of revolution. Much concerned
with reducing friction and improving the
precision of bearings, Cherubin was also
the first to use a conical bearing in a ma­
chine tool. He also developed devices
called gibbed slides to improve the ac­
curacy and facility of holding the cutting
tool. A century later such slides had be­
come remarkably complex, as can be
seen in a "rose engine" built in 177l.
This was a specialized lathe named for
its ability to cut roselike patterns [see
top illustration on next page].
Early in the 18th century an important
chapter in 'lathe design was contributed
by clock- and instrument makers, many
of them French. Although their work­
pieces were quite small and their lathes
hardly what one would call industrial
tools, these. gifted artisans recognized
that to turn out metal parts of precise
dimensions. ·.4I.thes would have to be
accurate an d made entirely of metal. In­
strument makers of course worked main­
ly with brass and other soft metals.
The first significant reference to cut­
ting iron on a lathe appeared in 1701,
in a treatise called L'Alt de TOl/rner by LATHE DESIGNED BY JACQUES BESSON, Leonardo's successor as engineer to the
Charles Plumier. He wrote that he knew French court, incorporated a clever means for feeding the cutting tool longitudinally in ('0-
of only two other men who could turn ordination with the rotation of the workpiece. (Workpiece is the tapered screw heing cut
iron. In describing his own lathe for this at the left.) The co·ordination of tool feed and workpiece rotation is achieved hy pulleys.

137

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

 "",0· . .
* ", �<"

"'::0' 'f" I�

-\

" ".,�;� , ""

"ROSE ENGINE" of 1771 was a specialized lathe for cutting rose­ pewter. A dose-up of the compound slide rest is shown at the hot­
like and other ornamental designs in wood or soft metals such as tom right, with an "exploded" view of its parts directly above.

IRON-CUTTING LATHE OF 1701 was designed by Charles The cutting tool was supported by a heavy rest (L). Power was
Plumier. The lathe was ruggedly built and had adjustable stocks. supplied by a large wheel (/lot shown) turned by two laborers.

138

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

work he emphasized strength, rigidity
and finish of workmanship [see bottom
illustration on preceding pageJ. Plu­
mier's lathe had iron spindles held in
bearings of cast tin or other soft metal,
one of the earliest examples of this type
of bearing construction, now widely used
in machinery of all kinds.
Plumier's lathe was powered by two
men, who turned a large wheel; an iron­
working lathe built by Christopher Pol­
hem in Sweden was powered by water.
It seems likely that Polhem had his lathe
in operation as early as 1710, but details
are scanty. The lathe had a tool car­
riage driven by a lead screw and gears
to move the cutting tool longitudinally.
This lathe was evidently able to make
accurate parts on an industrial scale,
yet Polhem had little influence
machine-tool design even in Sweden.
\;Yhy, one can only guess.
chuck mounted on the headstock spindle
(to accept workpieces of various diam­
eters) and provision for lubricating the
bearings and other critical parts. All in
all, it was a rugged and precisely built
machine capable of turning out accurate
parts at a good rate.
It is indicative of the rapid spread
of new technology that only three years
later, in 1798, David Wilkinson in the
U. S. was building a screw-cutting lathe
that compared rather favorably with
Senot's machine. By 1806 Wilkinson had
built a general-purpose lathe that be­
came very popular, particularly in Gov­
ernment arsenals, where more than 200
were in use by 1848. Curiously, the lathe
on
was never patented, with the result that
many details of its construction are un­
known. In his busy shop in Pawtucket,
R.I., Wilkinson trained a whole genera­
tion of machinists and machine-tool
builders, laying the foundation of the
U. S. machine-tool industry.
he man who grasped most clearly
T the need for a metal-cutting lathe of
precision and large capacity and who
had the genius to design, build and
market it was Henry Maudslay. Born in
1771, Maudslay started work at the age
of 12 in the Woolwich Arsenal. By 15
he was an expert metalworker in the
arsenal's smithy. In 1797, at 26, he

y 1760 a very fine iron-turning lathe

B appeared in France, built by Jacques
de Vaucanson, a gifted machinist who
also made important improvements in
the loom. His lathe is preserved in the
Conservatoire National des Arts et
Metiers in Paris [see upper illustration at
rightJ. It has a heavy framework of iron
bars solidly bolted together, and it can
take a workpiece about a meter in length
and a third of a meter in diameter. An
important innovation appears in the
metal guideways that support the tool
carriage. They are made of square bars
mounted at an angle of 45 degrees. This
made it simpler to get high precision
guiding of the slide rest, and the sur­ IRON·TURNING LATHE OF 1760, built by Jacques de Vaucanson, is preserved in the

faces, being sloped, easily shed dirt and Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris. The heavy framework of solidly
bolted bars provided great rigidity. The lathe could take a workpiece a meter in length.
chips. Guideways with these sloping
surfaces are said to be prismatic and
have been widely used in machine tools
ever since.
Vaucanson's lathe must have been
rather inconvenient to use. The apparent
limitations in the workpiece drive mech­
anism and the use of brass instead of
iron in the carriage must have sharply
limited the rate of metal removal. It
shows quite clearly, nevertheless, that
French designers were at least a gener­
ation ahead of English lathe builders in
producing a lathe capable of precision
machining on parts of industrial size.
Also preserved in the Conservatoire
National is a remarkable screw-cutting
lathe built in 1795 by a machinist named
Senot r
[see lower illustration at ight J. It
includes such features as change gears
(for changing the pitch of the screws to
be cut), fixed and following back rests SCREW·CUTTING LATHE OF 1795, also in the Conservatoire National (which supplied
(to keep the workpiece from bending these two photographs), was built by a machinist named Senot. The lathe includes change
while being cut), a simple set-screw gears, fixed and following back rests and a set· screw chuck mounted on headstock spindle.

139

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

founded what became one of the great
machinery works of England.
Maudslay approached the problem of
improving the lathe just as the Indus­
trial Revolution was creating a demand
for machine parts produced in large
quantities and to close specifications. He
brought to th: problem an intuitive
sense of mecIL:ni::al analysis that had
been sharpened bv close fami1iarity with
metalworking techniques and the be­
havior of metals. He quicklv recognized
the importance of providing perfectly
Bat surfaces on which to mount the head-
and tailstocks and on which the tailstock
and tool carriage were to slide. He saw
that a precision lead screw was essential
to accurate cutting. And he saw too the
importance of accuratelv aligned spindle
bearings and tailstock centers.
Maudslay began building lathes in

SCREW-CUTTING LATHE OF 1797 was built by the gifted Eng­ the age of 26. He devoted great effort to producing true guideways,
lish machinist Henry Maud,lay when he started his own shop at highly precise master screws and accurate, rugged bearings.

ANOTHER MAUDSLAY LATHE was this screw-cutting model iron bed supported on solid legs. The machine shown is relatively
built around 1800. The guideways are mounted on a separate cast· small, but it foreshadows the design of larger industrial lathes.

140

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

Who can hand you everything - from 30 mil cores to 60% of a computer ? AMPEX

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© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

 1794 and by 1797 had produced his first
screw-cutting lathe [see upper illustra­
tion 011 page 140]. It could handle work­
pieces up to three feet long and six inches
in diameter. The bed was formed by two
triangular bars, which served as guide­
ways for the tool carriage. It was the
first lathe larger than instrument mak­
er's size to have guideways with precise
surfaces. In a screw-cutting lathe built
about 1800, Maudslay incorporated still
more features of the modern industrial
lathe [see lower illustration 011 page
140]. For example, the headstock spin­
dle had a simple set-screw chuck and
the guideways were mounted on a sepa­
rate cast-iron bed supported on solid
legs.
Maudslay was particularly resourceful
in obtaining master lead screws of high
precision. He would begin by cutting
a lead screw first in one direction and
then in the other to smooth out defects
in the lead screw used to guide the cut­
ting. Selected sections of this new lead
screw were used to cut a second screw.
He also devised a mechanism in which
two guide screws were linked so that
their defects would be averaged out in
guiding the cutting tool. After many ef­
forts of this sort Maudslay had a splen­
did brass screw about seven feet long
that was only one-sixteenth of an inch
off from its computed length. This meant
an error of about .002 inch per turn of
the thread. He then invented a clever
linkage by means of which even this
We don't know why anyone would want to slice a light bulb up like
small error could be corrected.
an onion. But we do think it is an awfully good demonstration of the
Maudslay put an equally great effort
Airbrasive's ability to cut hard brittle materials. Imagine, for example,
into the design of precision bearings.
cutting precision slivers like these with a mechanical tool!
In one of his large lathes of 1830 he
This unique industrial tool is doing jobs that were up to now con­
incorporated a split journal bearing of
sidered impossible. Its secret lies in its superfine jet of gas-propelled
brass as a front bearing and a tapered
abrasive particles that are capable of precision cutting without shock,
rear bearing in which the spindle
heat or vibration. Thus the most fragile materials can be shaped,
journal was held in tapered steel bush­
drilled, abraded, or cleaned with complete safety.
Use it to make cuts as fine as 0.008" .
ings. The lathe also had a remarkable
. . remove surface coatings
feed mechanism, a forerunner of the
...debur tiny parts ...wire-strip potentiometers ...adjust microminia­
ture circuits ...cut germanium, silicon, ferrites, glass,. ceramics ...in
famous Norton gear box, which did not

the laboratory or on the production line.

appear until 1892. The drive consisted

The cost is low, too. For under $1000 you can set up an Airbrasive
of three gears of different sizes mounted

cutting unit in your own shop. on the spindle and a small connecting

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gear, or pinion, mounted on a counter­
shaft. The countershaft could be shifted
so as to engage the pinion with any one
of the three gears.
Beyond dispute Maudslav had put
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Dept. SA 10 East 40th St., New York 16, N. Y Telephone
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MU 3·3015 collect.
--
into one great svnthesis all th� elements
of the lathe that had gone before. And
• . •

he anticipated features that later were

to be highly developed. E(!uallv im­
portant was his great influence on a
number of other toolbuilders-such as
Richard Roberts and Joseph Whitworth
-who learned their trade and their
standards of workmanship in his shops.

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

Instant portable power ... any time, any place

In this battery-sparked new world of portable convenience, hand tools are driven by their own re­
chargeable batteries . . . toys perform their tricks by remote control ...a hearing aid with its
button-size power cell can be slipped into the ear ... cordless radios and television sets are lively
companions in the home or outdoors ...missiles and satellites are guided through the vastness of
space.� Developments like these have brought more than 350 types of EVEREADY batteries into
use today, 73 years after Union Carbide produced the first commercial dry cell.Ever-longer service
life and smaller size with power to spare are opening the way for batteries, such as the new alkaline
cells, to serve hundreds of new uses.� For the future, along with their research in batteries, the
people of Union Carbide are working on new and unusual power systems, including fuel cells.
And this is only one of the many fields in which they are active in meeting the growing
needs of tomorrow's world.
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Union Carbide Corporation, 270 Park Avenue, }Yew York 17, N. Y. In Canada: Union Carbide Canada Limited, Toronto.

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

SOLITARY WASPS take prey, which they paralyze by stinging, Sphex ichneumoneus, has taken a large katydid, which it grasps
primarily as food for their larvae. This great golden digger wasp, with its mandibles. In flight the wasp carries its prey with its legs.

BEMBIX PRUINOSA, having prepared a nest in a sand dune, APHILANTHOPS LATICINCTUS, a highly evolved wasp, preys
approaches the nest carrying a flower fly with its middle legs. only on one species of harvester ant, which it carries on special.
Bembix is one of the few solitary wasps that bring their larvae fresh ized segments on its abdomen. This Aphilunthops is standing on
flrey daily. The photographs on this page were made by the author. its middle and hind legs and using its front legs to reopen its nest.

© 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC